


My Mother's Tales

by revolutionarygold



Series: My Mother's Tales [1]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: F/M, Gen, bends and twists accepted lore, chapters will get longer as we get into it, mythology reimagining, tho i can't write mythology without hecate so, what up with not all the underworld kids having tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-05-26 00:24:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6216133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revolutionarygold/pseuds/revolutionarygold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Centuries later, when the stories were being widely told, it had been warped and twisted until she, the naive spring goddess Kore, had been ripped from the Earth and sunlight and tricked into eating pomegranate seeds that forced her to stay in the Underworld part of the year. In these stories, she was a victim being held hostage; childless, loveless, and cold. Warped telling and retelling - no doubt colored by the opinion the public held about her husband - had given her children to other parents, had made Hades disloyal, and had made her miserable. Luckily, Persephone knew the truth. She could make sure her children knew the truth as well. | a mythology reimagining of Hades and Persephone's life in the Underworld.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Brief mythological family tree: Hades, King of the Underworld is married to Persephone, goddess of spring. Their children are Thanatos, the god of death; Hypnos, the god of sleep; Melinoe, the goddess of ghosts; Macaria, the goddess of blessed death; and Zagreus, the god of the Orphic Mysteries (yeah, his title is a little iffy). That is also the birth order.

Honestly, Persephone wasn’t sure how those awful rumors about her abduction got started. Centuries later, when the stories were being widely told, it had been warped and twisted until she, the naive spring goddess Kore, had been ripped from the Earth and sunlight and tricked into eating pomegranate seeds that forced her to stay in the Underworld part of the year. In these stories, she was a victim being held hostage; childless, loveless, and cold.  
Warped telling and retelling - no doubt colored by the opinion the public held about her husband - had given her children to other parents, had made Hades disloyal, and had made her miserable.

Luckily, Persephone knew the truth. She could make sure her children knew the truth as well.

“Mamma!” Melinoe cried, worming her way out of the palette she’d slept on for her whole life. Persephone caught her light-haired daughter.  
“Meli…” she warned as the godling buried her face into her mother’s shoulder.  
“Macaria won’t stop pulling my hair!"  
The older girl was near tears, rubbing her head. Macaria was fidgeting with her fur covering, not sure what to look at.  
Persephone smoothed her daughter’s hair, murmuring a harvest blessing as she did. The Queen of the Underworld had no idea if the magic truly worked, but it had always made the twins feel better when they were babes.  
Melinoe, more dramatic than her brothers in spades, was still sniffling.  
“I know it hurts, lovely, but she doesn’t mean to hurt.”

The eldest daughter of Hades continued to pout.

“She pulls my hair too, sometimes,” Persephone whispered, “I’ll talk to your father about moving your rooms.”

The sniffling stop. Melinoe was starting to develop her own personality, and Persephone wanted nothing more than for her to explore that. Besides, she would have liked to keep Macaria in their chambers for longer, but then Zagreus was born and Macaria had to be moved with her sister.  
“For now, though-”

The Spring goddess started tickling the young goddess until Melinoe was screeching and flailing and begging to be put down.  
Finally, Persephone relented and set her daughter down next to the younger girl. She bent down close to Macaria, still cocooned in her furs.  
“Be nice to your sister, okay? I know her hair is pretty, but you need to be nice.”  
“Okay.”

Melinoe was squirming her way back under the covers, clutching the bit of blanket Demeter had knitted for her first granddaughter. Thanatos and Hypnos looked like each other and their father, and were grudgingly accepted by Demeter. She’d never met Macaria or Zagreus (but Persephone was willing to bet that her mother would love Macaria and tolerate Zagreus) but Melinoe - Melinoe looked like her mother and was thus loved by her grandmother.  
“Now, let me get your brothers and I’ll tell you all a story.”  
“Is it Daddy story?” Melinoe asked, her eyes lighting up. Persephone laughed.  
“Yes, lovely. It’s the story of me and your father. I’ll be back in just a minute.”

As the spring goddess left the room, she heard Melinoe’s quiet “yesss!” And Macaria begging for an explanation.  


***

The boys were messing around with the wooden swords they’d gotten for their last birthday when Persephone walked in.  
Almost immediately, they stopped. They weren’t allowed to fight in the living parts of the castle - not when Mom was home, at least. Hades was less of a disciplinarian than she was, but during the winter, Persephone would make sure that her children behaved.  
“I’m about to tell your sisters the story.”  
“The Daddy story?” Thanatos fired back, his eyes lighting up just like his sister’s.  
“I really don’t know why you all call it that,” was all Persephone had to say to confirm what she meant. The boys dropped their weapons and rushed out the door, nearly sprinting the short distance to the girls’ chambers.

Persephone followed at a much more sedate pace, pausing only to move the dummy swords out of the middle of the doorway.

***

When she re-entered Macaria and Melinoe’s room, the four of them were squabbling and shifting into position. They were leaving small Macaria alone, though, and the youngest was seated more or less where Persephone had left her; only now, her thumb was solidly planted in her mouth.

_As long as it stayed out of Melinoe’s hair, this could pass peaceably._

“You have until I get the chair over to settle,” she warned them. Instantly, the children all rearranged themselves - the twins on opposite sides of Melinoe and Macaria was nestled now in Hypnos’s lap.

Persephone smiled as she pulled the chair over to her daughter’s bed.  
“Alright. This is the story of how I met your father.”  
“Mom, can I help-”  
“Thanatos, if you want to tell the story, you are welcome to.”

“...Sorry mom.”


	2. Chapter 2

Persephone started her story at the beginning.  
“Well, I was born very shortly after your father and his siblings beat the evil Kronos…”

It was never Zeus; her children would know that their father was an integral part of the Titanomachy, and Olympus’s win. Thanatos in particular seemed star-struck when they talked about his father’s role in banishing Kronos and his brethren to Tartarus; his eyes lit up at the mere mention of it, and Persephone smiled as she continued on to the beginning of the story.

***

In the bright, eternally-summer days after the Olympian rule was established, it became obvious that Demeter was pregnant. No one made much of a big deal about it; Metis was even heavier with child than the harvest goddess. While the new race of gods had observed both human and titan pregnancies, none of them quite knew what to expect. So no one really talked about it, including the women themselves.   
A prophecy changed all of that. Mother Gaea had foretold that if Metis bore a son, he would rise against his father like all sons had done before him. 

When Metis disappeared, so did Demeter.

Oh, she was seen occasionally, but Demeter worried for her own babe. Demeter and Zeus alone knew the true parentage of her baby. Suppose the prophecy apply to her?

No. No, she wouldn’t do it. She’d spent enough time - locked away. It would not happen to her or her child. So Demeter made herself scarce. She taught the mortals her craft, and they stopped foraging and started farming.  
Cities grew. Industry began. People moved into other areas and continued to grow food. Demeter, kind and motherly Demeter, seemingly minutes away from giving birth, walked with humanity the whole way.

She hid the birth of her daughter.

Though she’d never been more grateful when she was than when Persephone had been born a girl, rumors had circled back to her that Zeus had taken their sister Hera as a wife. Hera had been oddly fixed on Demeter’s pregnancy. Hera had a jealous streak. If she knew Persephone’s father, it could ruin the two of them and everything Demeter had done. 

So, until she reached adolescence, Kore was spoken about as an afterthought. No one had met her. No one remembered her full name. No one asked about her. Persephone was safe, but her nymphs had told her about the Olympus they were born on, and now Persephone wanted more than anything to attend Olympian court.

***

“Mother, please! I am plenty old enough! You were just telling me that Artemis and Apollo took Council seats, and they are centuries younger than I.”  
It was true. The twins were full members of the Olympian council, and they were barely settled within their spheres. Apollo barely knew how to drive the sun, for Gaea’s sake.  
“It’s too dangerous, Kore,” came to unmerciful blow of her mother’s voice.  
 _Persephone,_ the goddess wanted to correct. But she didn’t.

“Will you think about it?”  
“You already have your sphere. What could you gain on Olympus?”

_Freedom. Friendship._

“More knowledge of my own art.”  
“They know nothing of the Earth, Kore. We alone tend the plants and the fields in this generation.”

The conversation ended there, as it always did.

***

Midsummer brought Persephone’s saving grace. It had been announced that Persephone was going to be introduced at Olympus on the solstice. The way that Demeter went icily cold about it told Persephone that it wasn’t a voluntary summons.  
Regardless of how Persephone got on the mountain, the springtime goddess was just happy that she was getting there. It wasn’t that she just loved the idea of Olympian politics, but she was...well, she was isolated. Persephone had heard about Athena and Artemis - other young goddesses who she thought she could be friends with. As an equal. Not as any - any weird servant-mistress friendship that she had right now. No, she would have real friends. Maybe they’d visit her little glen when she had to return.   
Whether or not she could retain friends had yet to be seen, but Persephone was confident in her ability to make them.

The rest of the time leading up to the council that Persephone was to be presented at was a flurry of activity. There were dresses to be made, names to memorize, and manners to ingrain within herself. She was naturally polite - or so she believed - but court manners were an entirely different thing to behold.   
Despite the rapid preparations, Persephone felt the days drag by. As much as she paid attention, everything her mother lectured about seemed to enter one ear and promptly exit the other. All the golden-haired spring goddess wanted was to be on Olympus and find someone to talk to.   
But try as she might, Demeter could not stop time. The council came, and Persephone’s presentation date came with it. 

Warily, Demeter ordered her chariot to be prepared. Effusively, Persephone joined her mother.

***

A god’s favored form of transportation had always dazzled Persephone a bit, but riding to Olympus was something else entirely. It wasn’t quite flying, but it definitely wasn’t the disappear-reappear act that other gods and nymphs were so fond of.   
Gripping the side of the railing, Persephone peeked over into the sky beneath them. She saw the unruly hair tendrils of aurea and could faintly hear their whistling laugh.   
“Kore!” her mother snapped. Persephone turned away from the side obediently - curiosity that belittled her dignity was something to be avoided at all costs on the mountain.   
“I apologize, mother.”

And so it went. Persephone would stand attentively and look only at the sun move above them and then something would catch her attention and her mother would have to bring her back to the proper present.

***

Persephone was looking straight forward, as she should have been, when the gates to Olympus finally came in view. She gave a small, strangled gasp, fixated on the shining entrance. Demeter glanced at her daughter and finally a small formed. This whole trip, the harvest goddess had been worrying at her bottom lip, trying to think of all the possible disasters and how to counter them.  
Seeing her daughter, her only child, light up in wonderment at the Olympian mountain eased those worries. Not entirely, of course, but perhaps this trip wouldn’t be as catastrophic as Demeter had feared. 

Heracles bowed his head as they settled outside the gates.  
“Lady Demeter.”  
“Heracles.”  
“And...Lady Persephone, I presume?”  
“Pleased to meet you, Heracles,” Persephone answered smoothly before her mother could do it for her. Demeter’s smile faded slightly at that, but Heracles only grinned at the young spring goddess.  
“Likewise, my lady.”

With that, he stepped back and started turning the crank that would open the gates to Olympus and Persephone got her first glimpse of what should have been her birthright.


End file.
